


Molded From Fire

by autumnamberleaves



Series: Friendship Matters [2]
Category: House M.D.
Genre: Anaphylaxis, Depression, Emergency - Freeform, Friendship, Gen, Suicidal Thoughts, suicidal attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 10:30:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnamberleaves/pseuds/autumnamberleaves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When grief like a fire threatens to destroy one of their own, the team is left trying to remold their lives.  Second story in the "Friendship Matters" universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Molded From Fire

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own a house let alone THE House. I also don't own EOS lip balm. Set in the episode "Ignorance is Bliss." Contains some lines but is it's own story.

***MFF***

She was never coming back. The thud of the door as it closed echoed with the finality of her decision. He could add the failure of his marriage to the many other disappointments of his life. Chase stared at the spot she had been just moments before. Cameron had hugged him goodbye, in which he could barely return. He wanted to but he was empty, spent. 

He should have known that he’d do something to botch up what happiness he had managed to find. He should have realized that he was unlovable. It was true that he was in the eye of many women, but only as a pretty face. Nothing deserving of a real relationship.  
How much time passed, it could have been seconds or hours, he did not know; when he stood up and walked as though remote controlled to the bedroom. 

Not bothering to disrobe, he laid on top of the comforter. He cradled his head on the pillow that smelled faintly of lilac blossoms, the pillow that was not his. 

He closed his eyes and did not sleep. 

***MFF***

Chase lay on the couch in the staff room. He stared at the ceiling but saw nothing. His hands folded and twisted with every fleeting thought. He was a failure, doomed by his own actions with the only person he had ever let get close to him now repulsed at the very sight of her pathetic husband. He didn’t notice when the door creaked open. 

Foreman stood just inside the threshold. “You ok? I mean, I know you’re not all right. . .” He trailed off, clearly uncomfortable. Chase just stared past him. Foreman sighed and tried again.

“Sure you don't want to grab a drink after work? Figured we could talk about the perils of dating doctors.” 

Chase scoffed; dating was a whole lot different than being married. He should have known he’d screw up marriage if he had trouble with just the dating phase. It had seemed then that he made mistake after mistake that should have been his clue that he’d make a disaster after marriage. The Australian got up and walked to the refrigerator. A few seconds of pointless searching told him he really wasn’t hunger-not new, he hadn’t been hungry since he’d killed Dibala. He let the door of the icebox shut and instead walked out of the lounge effectively cutting short the conversation that the other man sought. 

***MFF***

Chase should have known that he wasn’t out of the woods yet with his colleagues. He had stupidly hoped that by dismissing Foreman, he would be left alone by his other co-workers. He was wrong. 

He and Taub were searching their current patient’s home for toxins. Chase hadn’t wanted to go with the shorter man, but House had demanded it. He contemplated the patient who was supposedly a genius but who spent his time as a Carrier. It made no sense that someone so brilliant could be happy and satisfied with the job. 

“Want to come over for dinner Thanksgiving?” 

Chase looked from the shelf he was searching, startled at the unexpected question. He ran a hand through his hair. “You’ve never asked before. Why now?” He stated more than really questioned. 

“Figured now was a good time to start.” Taub shrugged but his mind was several months back. “We’ve hung out some.” Taub reminded the Australian. They had started hanging out after Chase had confronted him about facing their fallen colleague. 

Chase knew what Taub was getting at, what Foreman had suspected and knowing his luck, what Thirteen would think too. “I’m not Kutner.” He stated. Doubts grew.  
***MFF***  
Chase sat on the bathroom floor in his condo he’d so recently shared with Allison. He’d gone home early, claiming a sudden illness. Fresh tears ran down his cheeks as he finally expelled the grief he’d gallantly tried to hide from the team. From everyone. He didn’t deserve anyone’s sympathy. He was the one who’d screwed up, the one to destroy everything important to him. 

And everyone would not leave him ALONE. That’s all he wanted, needed, was to be alone. This was the first time in the entire day he’d not had someone bugging him about what he was feeling. As if they knew. As if they possibly COULD know. No one else had done what he had done. No one had murdered a murder and then caused his wife to leave him. He deserved this misery. Chase rubbed at his aching head. So many memories of shadows of what could have beens. 

It was a bright Autumn day and the leaves had begun to change to brilliant bold hues. A nip was in the air, a relief to most people who had suffered the heat of the summer. For one doctor, the cooler air was welcomed however he had been used to much hotter. Still, he couldn’t help but smile as he sipped at his cappuccino he’d bought on the way to work. He was employed at Princeton Plainsboro Hospital under the supervision of Doctor Gregory House. And today a new doctor was starting on the team that currently consisted of House and himself. A woman, from what House had said in between dodging both clinic hours and cases. 

He made his way through the lobby and to the stairs, nodding ‘hellos’ to various colleagues. When he reached his destination, he could plainly see the woman sitting at the table pouring over various papers. 

“Hi. I’m Chase.” He sat down beside the woman who promptly spilt her coffee in response. Her face turned pink.

“Oh. . .you scared me.” She mumbled as she jumped up to grab some paper towels. Chase beat her to it and had the mess cleaned up before she could find the towels. He smiled as he threw them away. 

“Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to scare ya.” He apologized as he offered her a smile. She nodded in response. 

“I’m Dr. Cameron, Allison Cameron.” She moaned softly at the unintentional James Bond impersonation. “So. . .it’s Autumn, getting colder now.” She mumbled as she licked her slightly chapped lips. She reached into her pocket and retrieved a pink round object. Chase watched with interest, he didn’t recognize the item. She proceeded to twist the item into two pieces revealing a ball. Cameron smoothed the ball around her lips and noticed Chase staring. 

“It’s EOS lip balm. A bit pricier than normal lip balms but it works well.” 

“Ah.” Chase pulled out his own bag and retrieved a crossword puzzle book. He had just reasoned out inability to recognize faces was Prosopagnosia when she spoke again. 

“Of course, you’re probably used to cooler weather anyways, being from England after all.” Chase tried to not outwardly groan. What was it with Americans not being able to tell the difference between Australian and England accents? They didn’t sound remotely the same. He forced himself to smile.

“I’m from Australia. It gets cool there, but I’m much more used to hot weather.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry, you must be terribly homesick being on the total opposite side of the world and everything.”

“No, not. . .”He started to reply but she cut him off.

“Your lips are chapped. Try this!” She handed him a new-in-the-package version of the lip balm she had used. 

“Erm. No thanks.” The item was baby pink and House would never let him live it down if the older doctor caught him using it. “I have some chap stick in my locker.” He didn’t really, but wanted to get her off his back. 

“Nonsense! Your lips are really chapped, here, try it!” She proceeded to unwrap the package and tossed him the small ball of balm. The two halves became undone as it sailed in the air and the half with the balm landed face down in his palm. To appease the persistent woman beside him, he began to lift it to his mouth when his hand began to itch furiously. To his shock, his whole hand was turning red with a spreading rash. His hand swelled. 

“What’s wrong?” Cameron got up in shock, staring at his hand. 

He said nothing as he got up, went to the sink and washed his hands. As precaution, he pulled out a couple of benedryl, hoping it would be enough without his epipen. Chase didn’t want to appear as weak as using that would make him seem, especially in front of the new doctor. 

“Just a little reaction to something.” He tried to smile as he waiting for the antihistamine to work. 

“I can see that, what are you allergic to?” She asked, walking up to him and looking at his hands. They didn’t seem to be anything too serious to worry about, so she tried to wait to see if the medicine she’d seen him take would work. 

Chase sighed, this woman would be the death of him yet! “Strawberries. That’s all that I know of. Does this…stuff…have them in it?” He glared at the seemingly innocuous ball of lip balm. 

“Oh. Yeah, it’s Strawberry Sorbet flavored. It has real strawberry extract in it.” Cameron read the ingredient list from the back of the torn package. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t know it had it in there. Or that you were allergic to it. . .what did you say your name was?” 

“Chase. Robert Chase.” He mimicked her as he stared at his slowly recovering hand. 

Cameron never used the lip balm again, he realized. After his slight reaction to it, he would spot her with other flavors, ones that didn’t include strawberry. She’d been doing that since before she even liked him. And he only now realized it. Maybe if he’d noticed some of the smaller things like that, she would have forgiven him his sin. She wasn’t to blame though, only him. 

Though she had never used the balm after her first day at working at the hospital, she had kept the little ball. It had been tossed in a cluttered drawer in the bathroom where it had stayed in the far corner. He’d seen it recently but hadn’t had the heart or the will to throw it out. Maybe. . .Allison would want it now. He knew he should just throw it away but it was his angel’s, he couldn’t get rid of something of hers. He rose to his feet and shakily stepped towards the vanity and opened the drawer. He spied the pink ball and grasped it. He would get an envelope later and mail it, he decided. Or maybe not. . .

Here he was contemplating to dare mail anything to Allison. She was the world and he was scum. He had no business even thinking about contacting her again. He didn’t want to pollute her. Why couldn’t life be simpler, like in the early days? He missed Allison so much, even that version of her that was more skittish schoolgirl than confident doctor like she’d been when they’d first met. Chase knew he’d never see Allison again, but nor did he want to imagine life permanently without her. Still grasping the closed ball he carefully opened it. He had to at least sniff it, breathe in the first memory of his World. He raised the little tub and soaked in the sweet fragrance. 

He was separated from his wife merely five months from marrying her. Even his father had done better to his mum. He didn’t want to go back to work and face his well-meaning but nosy coworkers yet again. They didn’t really care anyways. Thirteen had acted like she did, but he knew better. Foreman had implied he did, but the Aussie knew him better than that. The other man didn’t like him, had never like him. House? Ha. He didn’t care about anyone, except possibly Wilson. Taub only cared because it was the “right” thing to do, after he’d helped him after Kutner’s suicide.

Kutner. No one had seen the man’s suicide coming. He was outgoing , made friends as easily as he could electrocute them and himself, and always seemed to be dancing through life. He’d had trauma as a child, but appeared to overcome it. Everyone had missed the doctor. 

No one would miss him. The stray thought went as quickly as it came. He couldn’t. 

Could he?

What did he have to loss? Chase thought of the team, saddened that he couldn’t think of family to list before coworkers. No, they wouldn’t miss him. They’d probably never notice his absence.  
What did he have to gain? Freedom.

He brought the little ball of balm to his mouth and took a long lick. 

***MFF***

Back in the Diagnostics Department, House burst into the room. “Well kiddoes, the patient’s gone home and I’m staying up here so Cuddy doesn’t try to force fed me clinic duty, whip crème is so much tastier!” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. He glanced around the room at the assembled team. “Hmm, we got the ex-con, the double hitter, and the midget, where’s Skippy?” 

“Complained he was coming down with something. Left a few hours ago.” Forman answered, glancing up from his magazine.

“Oh that naughty kangaroo. No one goes home unless I tell them they can go home.” House practiced his best mob boss impersonation. He walked towards his desk, searched a moment and tossed Foreman a key. “The three of you don’t get to slack off just because we don’t have a patient. Go to his condo and drag his ass back here. Then you can slack off as much as you want to. He’ll be doing whatever clinic hours Cuddy assigns me. 

“House, if he really is sick, he shouldn’t be around patients!” Taub exclaimed, staring at his boss. 

“Relax, it’s a hospital, he’ll fit right in!” With a groan, the trio of doctors left the room.

***MFF***

Chase’s condo was only five minutes from the hospital in a neighborhood surrounded by trees displaying their Autumn coats of leaves. As it was still daytime and most people were at work, there were plenty of parking spaces and Foreman chose one close to Chase’s home. 

“You ever been here before?” Thirteen questioned to either of the other two doctors. She felt uneasy and an odd sense of déjà vu came over her. 

“Yeah, once, a couple months ago.” Taub recalled the time when Chase had invited him over to watch a movie he’d been wanting to view. 

“No, never.” Foreman realized with a shake of his head. He had known where the Australian lived but had never been to his apartment where he used to reside or in his current home. He’d been coworkers with Chase for six years and never once been to the man’s house. That was a bit sad in a way, Foreman had thought him stuck up in the earlier years and it didn’t help that the Aussie was a very private person. With a shake of his head, he walked to the door stoop and knocked. “Chase, open up!”  
There was no answer. 

“I tried to call him to let him know he was needed at the hospital, but he never answered.” Thirteen recalled, having tried to warn the man that they were coming. “I left a message though.” 

Foreman knocked again with a sidelong glance at Thirteen. “Chase, come on and open the door! It’s chilly out here!” Foreman tried to appeal to Chase’s ‘pleasing people’ side. Still Chase didn’t come to the door. 

A minute passed silently as Thirteen tried to call Chase again with no luck. With a glance between Taub and Thirteen, Foreman took out his wallet and retrieved a worn credit card. He quickly jimmied it between the lock and the door opened with a soft pop. 

“Chase? Where are you?” Thirteen called out. “I’ll check the bedroom, he said he was sick, maybe he’s in bed asleep. She walked down the small hallway and entered the master bedroom located at the right side of the end.  
The bed looked rumpled, with sheets askew but the intensivist was not there.

“Chase?” Thirteen repeated. With a glance around the darkened room, she concluded he was wasn’t in the room proper and walked to the in suite bathroom. The door was closed but as she was able to twist the knob, not locked. She creaked the door open. Her heart stopped. 

***MFF***

“Foreman, Taub!” Thirteen’s panicked scream sent both of the male doctors sprinting towards the master bedroom and into the bathroom. 

Thirteen was kneeling besides an unconscious and cyanotic Chase. “He’s not breathing!” She informed them of the obvious. She lifted his head upwards and attempted to breathe into his mouth. “I think his throat’s closed up!” 

Foreman spotted the fallen lip balm and realized the younger doctor had rashes forming all over his body. “Taub! Tell them it’s anaphylaxis” He shouted to the short doctor who was already on the phone with 911.  
Foreman and Thirteen both raided the Aussie’s pockets in hopes of an epipen. With no luck, Foreman stood and threw open the cabinet. None were to be found. 

“Damn Chase! Where is it?” He yelled at the unconscious man. 

Taub had ended the phone call to the paramedics and abruptly ran out the room and seconds came back with Chase’s messenger bag. With no finesse he opened all the pockets and upturned the bag. Papers, Chase’s beloved crossword puzzles and chewed on pens and pencils fell out first, followed by a stethoscope, which Thirteen promptly took . Finally, the item that Taub sought fell out.  
He grabbed the epipen and uncapped it in one fluid motion. Without pausing, he jammed the shot into the intensivist’s thigh and waited for the click that signaled the injection was completed.

“That should help some!” He snapped as he felt the blonde’s throat. “It’s locked.” He shared a worried glance with his companions. There was no telling how long the Australian had been without air and if the paramedics didn’t arrive soon, he would die. 

“Comeon Chase, breathe!” Thirteen still attempted to breath for the doctor. This could not be happening, not again! “Chase if you die, I’m going to haunt you when I die and you’ll be begging to be alive!” She snapped as she took a quick breath. 

“His pulse is dangerously slow.” Foreman felt for the man’s pulse. He seemed to reach a conclusion. “In the car, is a medical bag in the trunk. Someone get it!” Thirteen jumped up at the biting tone of her sometimes-lover. 

“On it!” Normally, she’d snap that he was not their boss and to stop ordering everyone around but now was not the time. She just hoped it wasn’t too late for the Australian doctor. 

Thankfully, Foreman had left the car doors unlocked and she was able to hit the trunk unlock button swiftly. She quickly spied the black duffle-like bag and pulled it out. She was surprised to see the name “Dr. Robert Chase” on the tag.  
She didn’t waste time to shut the trunk door as she hurried back into the house and into the bathroom where the intensivist was still turning blue. “Here.” 

Foreman took the bag and ripped open the zipper. “I hope it’s here.” He muttered as he glimpsed at the contents. Finally he eyed what he sought. 

“He needs a tracheostomy. Where the hell is that ambulance?” Foreman removed a knife and the tubing. He tossed the medium-sized balloon bag to Taub. “Be ready to bag him.” He lifted the knife towards the Aussie’s throat.

“You need to put iodine on first!” Thirteen protested as she once again took the man’s pulse. 

“He doesn’t have any-we’ll worry about infection when he’s breathing!” Foreman made the small cut and inserted the plastic tubing. As if on cue, Taub connected the bag and began pumping. No one spoke for a moment. Chase began to lose the blue tint. 

“He’s stabilizing and his pulse is getting better, finally. “ Thirteen breathed. 

The three doctors took a precious moment to sigh in their relief as both Chase was slowly recovering and in the fact that the ambulance finally arrived. Within moments, the little room was filled with paramedics and the three doctors stood up. “I’ll ride with him in the ambulance and meet you at PPTH.” Taub stated as they watched the paramedics lift the still unconscious Chase onto the gurney. One of the paramedics quickly snapped an oxygen mask over the blond’s face. 

Chase was quickly packed into the awaiting ambulance with Taub jumping in beside him. The paramedic who had climbed into the back as well fiddled with the oxygen mask and hooked him up to a heart monitor. “Lucky a group of doctors found him. Not many people would have known what to do” She referred to the emergency tracheostomy. 

“Believe it or not,” Taub wearily stated, “He’s the intensivist of the group, he’s far more used to doing them than we are.” He sighed.  
The thin blonde woman looked over at him. “Do you know what set off the anaphylaxis?” She questioned as the ambulance sped on.

“Er. . .he’s allergic to strawberries. Foreman found a thing of lip balm near him. Maybe it was strawberry flavored.” Taub was more than certain, given his recent behavior that it was indeed the balm that had set off the reaction and that it wasn’t an accident. Not that he’d say this to some young wisp of a paramedic. There were certain things that she just didn’t need to know. 

“He probably didn’t realize it used real strawberry extract. Most lip balms use artificial.” He didn’t feel guilty for lying to the woman, after all everyone lies.

Within minutes the ambulance pulled to a stop and the driver jumped out and thrust open the back door. The two paramedics and Taub carefully maneuvered Chase’s gurney out of the vehicle and through the emergency room dock. Within minutes Thirteen and Foreman arrived to take their places beside Taub. With their help, they guided the gurney to the prepped emergency room. 

“We’ve got it from here.” The ER doctor informed House’s team as they prepared to continue to work on their fallen colleague. The trio didn’t budge but just continued to help set up monitors and connect him to an IV. “Seriously, get out. You three are too close to the patient.” When the trio failed to move again, the doctor sighed and moved towards the phone. “Security to ER 105.” He turned to them. “If you know what’s best for you, I’d suggest to get out of the room now, or risk not being able to get near him at all. Go tell that boss of yours’ what happened.” 

The threat worked that time. None of the doctors wanted to risk being kicked out entirely from their comrade, so they allowed themselves to pull away and walk away from the ER. They tried to not watch as a team of doctors swarmed around Chase and he became almost impossible to see. 

As if their bodies were made of lead, Foreman, Taub and Thirteen moved sluggishly towards the elevator. Mechanically, Thirteen pressed the button that would take them to their floor. “It wasn’t an accident, was it?” She questioned, looking to both doctors in turn.

“No. That lip balm I found had real strawberry extract in it. It used to be Cameron’s.” Foreman leaned heavily against the wall. “He probably felt so horrible, he decided that the best way to deal with it, was to get out of it.” Foreman could remember old cases from when they’d been working with Cameron, whenever the topic of suicide or suicidal actions came up, Chase had always shied away or deflected from such comments. 

“I’d believe it.” Taub spoke softly. He weighed the options and made a decision. “After Kutner,” he paused thinking of the irony, “After Kutner died, Chase practically forced me to go with him to a bar. We got to talking and it turns out that he’d tried to commit suicide as a young teen. I should have seen it coming.” He hated himself at that moment. People who had attempted suicide were likely to try it again sometime in their lifespan. He knew that the blond was sad, depressed, even over Cameron leaving him, but he hadn’t thought that the man would do this. 

Within a minute the elevator lurched to a stop and the doctors exited the cramped space. The walk towards House’s office took only seconds but seemed to take much longer. They entered without knocking. 

“We found Chase.” Foreman announced as he watched his boss play with his PSP. 

“And is he in the clinic, doing my hours?” House didn’t bother looking up from his game. He was on level ten and wanted to beat it. 

“No he’s in the ER-“Thirteen began to say.

“Well, tell his wombat butt to leave the ER Doctor work to actually ER Doctors and get his ass in the clinic under my name.” House scoffed, Cuddy was really annoying him with asking about clinic.

“as a patient.” Thirteen finished. House shot his face up to his underlings. 

“When we got to his condo, Chase was in full anaphylactic shock. We think he tried to commit suicide using his strawberry allergy.” While he’d not told the paramedic what he suspected, Taub had no qualms about telling their boss. House needed to know. 

“Why isn’t at least one of you monitoring him?” He asked, masking his emotions as he always did. 

“We were actually kicked out.” Thirteen admitted. “We thought it was best to comply or risk not being able to see him at all.”  
House didn’t speak but instead maneuvered his cane and pushed himself out of the chair. “I’ll be stealing Wilson’s lunch.” He called out as he limped out of the room. His employees tried to not stare as their boss passed Wilson’s office and crossed over to the elevator. 

***MFF***

A soft hissing sound filled the room. Strange yet familiar blips and bleeps tickled his ears as the darkened world lightened ever so slowly. Blurred images began to dance in his eyes as he struggled to focus. He became aware of a firm pressure on his forehead and then retreating. 

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Taub intoned as he glanced at the monitors keeping check over the Australian’s vitals. 

“Taub,” Chase tried to speak, only to find that instead of his voice, a hiss admitted and his throat felt odd. He raised a shaky hand to his throat to find a tube there. In his drugged state, he tried to remove it.

“Stop that. You’re ok. Foreman had to perform an emergency tracheostomy on you. You’re in the ICU. They gave you more epinephrine as well as IV fluids. You’re being pumped full of vitamins and nutrients. You were dehydrated and malnourished as well.” Taub delivered the news matter-of-factly, usually his most dangerous tone. Underneath that even tone lurked sadness and anger, emotions that even Chase in his drugged state could decipher. 

Silence filled the room as Chase tried to wrap his mind over the new information. How had he arrived here? He hadn’t called for help, hadn’t wanted to be saved so how did he end up in the hospital? Chase scrunched up his eyes, unprepared for the intense headache that followed consciousness. He struggled to think through what Taub had said. Foreman. He’d performed a tracheostomy on him. Had he found him? Almost against his will, he found himself looking up at Taub.

The older doctor seemed to read his mind. “House ordered Thirteen, Foreman and I to come and bring you to the hospital to do his clinic duty. Instead we found you on the bathroom floor in anaphylactic shock. Foreman noticed a strawberry lip balm near you.” Taub sighed and looked over at the young man lying in the oversize twin hospital bed. “You nearly died. If Foreman hadn’t been able to do the emergency tracheostomy, you probably wouldn’t have made it to the hospital.” 

Chase’s eyes couldn’t meet Taub’s. “But that’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Taub shook his head. “A few months ago, you were my support whether or not I wanted it. Don’t you know that you have that support too?” The short doctor still couldn’t believe how close the Australian had come to dying.

“I sent Foreman and the rest of the team a page. They should be here soon. We’re going to see if you’re strong enough stay awake for more than a few minutes. If you are, Foreman’s going to do a neuro check on you. You’ll probably have to have a CT and MRI as well. No telling what damage you did to yourself.” 

Chase cast his eyes down to his sheet. No one was supposed have found him damn it! He hadn’t wanted to cause anyone extra work, but he couldn’t even die right! 

The door banged open. House hooked his cane to the door and stepped in. He promptly grabbed his cane, allowing the door to slam shut on Foreman and Thirteen. House limp-marched to Chase’s bedside. His eyes were cold yet masking emotion as he used the handle of the cane to force Chase’s chin up to look at him. “You of all people should know there’s no glory in death.” Words House remembers intoning to another patient, another time. Chase moved his eyes downwards. House didn’t relent though and held his chin upward as far as he dared, mindful of the tube in the Australian's throat. 

Foreman decided to intervene on Chase’s behalf. “One blink for yes, two for no. We’ll be getting a talk valve for you in a bit, but for now, let’s try this. You’re likely to have some difficulty in talking in any case.” All of which Foreman knew Chase knew but he would state it anyway. “Do you understand?” 

Chase blinked once slowly. Foreman nodded and began the exam. He shone his penlight into each of Chase’s eyes and they dilated and constricted as was normal. “Good. Stick out your tongue and try to keep it in the middle.” Chase complied duly. “Also good.” Foreman pulled out a set of flash cards. “Make a story using these cards. Chase took the cards and looked at them. A girl licking an ice cream, a mom paying for the cone, and the last, the pair walking towards the stand. He shuffled the cones, squinting at them. He moved them to show the pair walking up to the stand, the mom buying the cone and the girl licking the cone. 

“Good. Perfect.” Foreman masked his concern over noticing Chase had squinted at the cards. It could be something as innocent or it could spell trouble in the Frontal Lube of the brain. He grabbed a pen and paper and wrote. “I need you to solve these questions.” 

Chase took the paper, once again noticing that it looked blurry. He had to squint but realized that the questions were easy. He wrote them down quickly. 2+2=4, 124-123=1, and so on. He handed Foreman back the paper, wincing when Foreman had to move his hand slightly to get it. He’d thought he handed it right to him. 

“Do you wear contacts?” House stepped up to Chase again. Chase blinked twice. “We’re going to do the usual tests plus an MRI and CT on you but I’ll bet you a hundred dollars you’ll be wearing them now. I’m sure glasses will look dashing in therapy. Which you will be going to. You’ll go until your attending doctor-that’s me by the way, says otherwise.” Chase glared at House with contempt. He didn’t want any damn therapy because he didn’t want to damn live! 

“Chase.” Thirteen went up to the Australian and grasped his hand. “I don’t know why you did this but we’ll help you. We’ve been in tough situations too. Please let us help you. I can only guess it had to do with Cameron leaving. She didn’t deserve you anyway.” Thirteen stated in her typical blunt way. 

Chase scowled, how dare Thirteen say that Cameron wasn’t good enough for him. She was perfect! The only one he’d been chasing for years. He was the one who’d screwed up, not her. Not Allison. 

“Chase, I can tell you don’t believe me but she wasn’t perfect and one day you’ll realize that you knew it and just didn’t want to admit it. I don’t know what went down, but for her to leave you in what was obviously a dark time, shows real cruelty on her part.” Thirteen smoothed Chase’s hair out of his eyes with a sad smile. “You have a lot of friends that care about you, don’t forget.” 

Foreman was never the cutesy type but after he’d packed up the cards and pen and paper he looked at the figure on the bed. “We’re going to help you through this. We might be a very dysfunctional group, but we’re a family nonetheless. When you’re able to be sprung from here, you are going to stay for a while at my place. Taub’s staying there too. You don’t need to be alone.” 

Chase slowly blinked his eyes once in recognition. He didn’t believe them about Cameron but he could see, even if only as a doctor, that he needed help. 

***MFF***

“Well your CT and MRIs look clean. There’s some slight damage to both optic nerves, which is causing your blurry vision but with corrective lenses that’ll be fixed. You can pay me my hundred dollars later. You don’t have your wallet on you.” House gruffly informed Chase. Chase looked over at House.

“Ne. . .ver a. . .greed to tha” He managed to say. They’d placed a voice volve on his tubing but his throat wasn’t used to it and speech was hard. 

“Sorry, I can’t understand you.” House snarked at the Australian doctor. “You’ll be staying here for a few more days, both to recover from your ‘incident,’ and also to be put on suicide watch. You're lucky that Foreman had your medical bag he was supposed to return to you in his car, wombat meat isn’t tasty.”  
Chase glared. He didn’t want to be watched like a hawk. He didn’t need it. House read his face and responded. “You know we need to do this. Foreman, Thirteen, Taub and Wilson will be watching you. If you’re not too boring, I may grace you with my presence yet again.” 

Wilson, that’s right, Chase was surprised that he hadn’t seen or heard from the kindly oncologist. “Damn Wilson and his cancer kids conferences in NYC.” House answered his questioning look. Chase suddenly remembered the lecture that Wilson had raved at being able to go to. 

With a sigh, he gave a half smile to show that while he didn’t think all of this was necessary, he appreciated the thought anyways.  
***MFF***

“Chase, you ready to go?” Foreman knocked on the door. The Australian opened it and stepped out. He adjusted the black rimmed glasses that contrasted his face nicely and nodded. 

“Yeah, I’m ready.” 

It was two months since Chase’s attempt on his life. He was living with Foreman and Taub as the former had said he would. He’d been back to work for two weeks and in therapy for six weeks. He didn’t know if he’d ever forgive himself for his role in Cameron leaving, but now realized that she hadn’t been so perfect either. Someone who truly loved someone would have stood by them, she’d fled when it didn’t go her way. He still loved her, he figured that he might always would but was growing less and less needy of her.  
His teammates and him were growing closer. Previously, they’d go out to figure out a difficult case or in celebration of solving one. Now, it was a weekly thing to meet up with Thirteen and sometimes House and Wilson. Which is what they were doing now. 

“Don’t forget this.” Foreman handed Chase a little pill. Chase had been prescribed Lexapro to combat his depression and help quall suicidal urges. He hated the idea of being on them but Taub had assured him that he had spent years on SSIs and was indeed taking a small dose ever since Kutner’s death. Chase took a cup of water and the pill and swallowed it. 

“Taub, are you ready?” Foreman called out. As if on cue, the short doctor stepped into the hallway. 

“Let’s go.” Taub answered in turn as the trio of men walked out of the door and onto their night out with House, Wilson and Thirteen. House had convinced them to head to a karaoke bar.  
Some things never change. 

Some things change a lot. If anyone had told Chase four months ago that he’d lose his wife, almost his life and gain friends, not just colleagues he would have had them brought in for psych evaluations. He’d made a sort of friendship with Taub months prior to his personal disaster but now having the others as friends, and even as a sort of family was on a totally different dimension. He rather liked it. It was like a lot in his life, an event molded from fire.


End file.
